“That was stupid,” Snow reprimanded her, once they were out of earshot. “We could’ve gotten caught.”

“Taking my brother was stupid,” Alika replied.

Snow rolled her eyes. “Did you catch his scent, at least?”

Alika nodded, and ran in front of Snow, snout to the ground. “It’s stale, but I got it.”

“Then lead the way.”

Tarka’s scent trail led the two through weaving streets and across cobble roads. The city was like a giant maze, and as they moved into the center of it, Alika felt nervous that they wouldn’t be able to find their way out again. Their path opened up into a huge clearing, a square pavilion surrounded by tall, ornately decorated buildings. A stone human stood in the center of the square, pouring out water from his hands.

“What is this place?” Alika asked, watching the stone human as if it would move at any moment. “What happened to that human?”

“This is a market square,” Snow explained. “And that’s a fountain statue.”

“A statue? How did they do that to the human? Magic?”

Snow snickered. “Don’t worry, it’s just carved from stone. It’s not going to get you.”

“It looks so real,” Alika whispered, poking at the man’s boots. “What’s a market square? Why would they take Tarka here?”

“It’s a place where humans gather to buy and sell stuff, like food and crafted goods,” Snow replied, with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “When I was younger, I’d sneak around and steal treats from the stalls.” She paused. “Wow, that brings some memories.”

“Buying and selling?” Alika cocked her head.

“Er, well, they exchange treasure for other stuff.”

“They exchanged treasure for Tarka?” Alika exclaimed. “Why would anyone want Tarka? I thought you said they weren’t going to eat him!”

“I dunno, humans are weird,” Snow replied. “Maybe he’s useful to them somehow, like a sled dog. Let’s not jump to any conclusions though, okay?”

“He’s not a dog!” Alika snarled, stomping through the market square as she hurried along Tarka’s scent trail. The smoke in her nostrils made it difficult to pick up. Perhaps she’d soon have a chance to let more of the fire in her belly free.

Tarka’s scent led them to the edge of the city, where the houses grew sparse and the woods grew thick. By this point, the faintest lights of dawn were rising behind them. If they wanted to find Tarka before humans were scurrying around the city, they had to do it soon.

The trail brought them up into the hills away from the fjord, where there were more trees than houses. Finally, Alika saw where it led: a small cabin at the end of the road, almost hidden within the pines. That was good. The other houses were far enough away that it would take time to alert the humans. All she had to deal with was the cabin, and anyone who was inside.

Smoke rose up in wisps from a chimney, as if the cabin itself was another dragon, threatening Alika to enter. She stepped closer, and put her snout to the ground. Tarka’s scent was fresh.

“He’s here!” Alika snarled, already rushing at the cabin. “He’s in there!”

“Alika, stop!” Snow shouted, running after her. “We need to make a plan!”

It was too late, and Alika refused to wait a second longer. She shrugged off the magic on her, extending her wings and leaping at the door to the cabin. With her full weight brought down upon it, the wooden door shattered beneath her paws.

Alika cracked her tail and roared a battle cry. Tarka’s scent was thick in the air, but so was that of human. An wrinkle-faced human wrapped in furs sat on a chair in front of a flickering fireplace, slowly turning his head toward the intruders.

Alika wouldn’t give him to grab a weapon — she’d learned from her previous mistake. She pounced forward, slamming a paw down on the man’s chest and pinning him to the chair. He gasped and wheezed and she dug her talons into the thick furs over him.

“What have you done with Tarka!” she growled, baring her teeth and placing her saber-fangs up against his wrinkled, fleshy throat. Had the man turned Tarka into furs? A quick glance confirmed that none of the furs were Tarka’s — all were brown — but what if he had? “If you’ve hurt even a patch of Tarka’s fur, I’ll rip you apart!”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Stop!” Snow said again, running in after Alika. “You broke my illusion, and humans can’t understand dragon language. He doesn’t know what you’re saying!”

The human looked up at Alika, his brown eyes staring up into hers. The little fur on his head was as white as Tarka’s, and he coughed on her snout as she pressed down on his chest. Slowly, he raised up a hand, but instead of reaching for a weapon, he pointed a single finger at himself.

“Friend,” he said in the language of dragons, the word garbled and odd in a human’s voice, but clearly understandable.

“What?” Alika asked, her mind boggled.

“Alika!” Tarka exclaimed from behind her. Alika’s eyes opened wide as she craned her head around to see her brother, running in from another room in the cabin. “You made it!”

“Tarka? You’re okay?” She stared at her brother, wondering if this was another one of Snow’s illusions. She’d expected to see him half-starved, injured and and losing fur, but if anything, he was the exact opposite. His neck and stomach were no longer lean from the constant walking — he’d filled out, and Tarka now looked as soft and squishy as a bear cub. “And you’re… chubby?”

Tarka nodded, wagging his thick tail from side to side. “Yarik has been feeding me so much fish! More fish than I even knew existed in the world! It’s been super-great!” He waddled over to the fireplace, using a saber-fang to spear a fish on a metal plate above the flames and carry it over. He dropped it at a befuddled Snow’s paws. “I knew you and Snow would find me, and I’m so glad you can finally meet Yarik too! Oh, but he’s sort of fragile, so you should probably get off him before he gets hurt.”

“Yarik?” Alika looked down at the human under her talons, lightening the weight on him. “Is that the human?”

“I am Yarik,” the man wheezed.

Alika slowly released Yarik from her grasp, glancing at Tarka, just to make sure that he wasn’t going to try and stop her. A human? He’d made friends with a human?

“How’d you escape from the fishermen?” Alika asked Tarka. “And come to find this… Yarik?”

“Well, I didn’t escape, exactly.” Tarka grabbed another fish from the stovetop, placing it down in front of Alika. “But Yarik gave them some treasure and they let me go, and it turns out that Yarik knows how to speak with dragons, so he brought me back here and has been giving me so so much fish! Did I mention the fish?”

“You did,” Snow replied.

Alika warily sniffed the fish that Tarka had brought her. It smelled of some sort of oils and herbs. Cautiously, she gave it a nibble. Her eyes lit up in wonder — it was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted, full of flavors she’d never even dreamed of tasting before! She eagerly gobbled down the rest. Perhaps humans weren’t so bad after all.

“Well, yeah, there’s been lots of fish,” Tarka continued. “It’s so good, isn’t it? I don’t get how those fishermen could be so mean when they have so much of them! Oh, and Yarik has been teaching me to speak to humans as well while we waited for you.” He opened his jaws and began to make incomprehensible garbling noises.

“Huh,” Alika replied, not understanding a word that Tarka had said. “Snow just… has magic for that, you know.”

Yarik sat up on the couch and said something similarly incomprehensible. Tarka returned a reply, and Yarik nodded.

Alika stared blankly. Her limbs were still tense and shaking — she’d come in here expecting a fight, not this.

Snow said something in the human language as well, making Yarik chuckle, while Tarka purred and thumped his tail.

“Really?” Alika glared at Snow. “You too?”

Snow just stuck out her tongue, letting her tail fall to the side and fan out into her normal three. Alika caught Yarik’s gaze focusing on the fox, but he said nothing more.

“Can we really trust him?” Alika asked Snow, side-eying Yarik. The elderly human was getting up from his chair, and began poking at the fire with a metal pole.

“Of course we can!” Tarka replied.

“That doesn’t make me any more confident,” Alika murmured, waiting for Snow’s reply. The fox was the one who’d told them how dangerous humans were. Could she really be cozying up with this one so soon?

“They’re not all bad,” Snow said, though Alika could tell that she had something else she wanted to say.

“I’m sorry that your first encounter with my species was so negative,” Yarik said, returning the pole to the side of the fireplace. “Most humans around here have never seen a dragon this far south. Tarka told me of your predicament — you’re looking for passage north, to find your pack?”

“Er, yeah, we are,” Alika replied. Had Tarka really told him everything?

“Then perhaps I can be of assistance. My granddaughter lives on the other side of the ocean, not far from where the dragon lands begin. I would like to visit her, and I have a seaworthy boat that should be large enough for us all. I’d be happy to have the additional company.”

Alika flicked her ears. “So you’re just feeding Tarka, and letting us go with you?” She couldn’t believe it — it seemed too good to be true. Why was he really helping them out?

“Not quite,” Yarik admitted, standing upright. “There is something I want from you.”

“There it is,” Snow snorted.

“I’ve not had someone else to crew the boat with me since my wife passed, or else I’d have made the journey ages ago,” Yarik continued, offering a gentle smile. “I’ll need help with both that and the fishing so long as you’re onboard.”

“Really? That’s it?” Alika asked. “Nothing else?”

“Hm, well, my granddaughter would surely love to what about the time I sailed the ocean with two dragons and a fox aboard,” he chuckled. “Certainly the most interesting crew I’ll have had. Perhaps you can give me a good story or two to tell.”

Alika went quiet. He couldn’t just be being nice, right? This had to be some sort of trap. It had to be.

“Sounds like a fair deal to me,” Snow replied. “We all get to where we want?”

“We will have to leave soon, however,” Yarik explained. “If we wait much longer, the docks will freeze over, and you’ll be stuck here until spring.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Tarka leaped to his hindpaws, spreading his wings. “The ocean awaits!”